Shadows of Destiny
by Lady Dawson
Summary: Kaitlyn Sawyer, the daughter of a Slayer who joined her sister Slayer Buffy on the hellmouth, leaves Sunnydale to travel the country and fight the supernatural. But a chance encounter with two brothers will lead her to her destiny . . . and to love. Abandoned.
1. What Happened Before

**Shadows of Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: What Happened Before

There are two days that remain perfectly vivid in my memory, despite the years that have passed since then. The first is the day that I found out the truth about my heritage, the day that I discovered that my mother was a Vampire Slayer and that I inherited her powers, her legacy, her destiny. It was also the day that I met my sister Slayer Buffy Summers and together, we fought to protect the hellmouth and keep the people of Sunnydale from dying before their time. The second memory is the day that I killed my boyfriend Jesse Bryant's little brother Jake.

Maybe I should back up a little bit. My mother was Gwyneth Seymour, the Vampire Slayer some twenty years ago. She met and fell in love with my father, whoever he was, and he disappeared, leaving her pregnant. Eventually, she gave birth to me and raised me as best she could with her Watcher James Wyatt, but when I was four years old, she was murdered a vampire named Josephine, James along with her.

But I was saved by a man named Angel. I didn't know it at the time, but he was actually a vampire cursed with a soul. And he would become one of the best friends that I could ever ask for. He took me to an orphanage and told me to change my name so the vampires wouldn't be able to find me.

For the next twelve years, I was shuffled from foster home to foster home, sent to live with dozens of families in various states across the country, but it wasn't until I moved to Sunnydale that I encountered any more supernatural activity.

My very first day at Sunnydale High, I met the new Slayer, though I didn't know who she was at the time, Buffy Summers. We became fast friends and that very night, I also met her boyfriend Angel, who was the same Angel who'd rescued me from my mother's murderers the night she died. He knew at once who I was and alerted Buffy and her Watcher Rupert Giles, telling them who I was.

It was a good thing that they told me the truth about my mother when they did, because unknown to me, my foster mother was actually a demon hired by Josephine to bring me to Sunnydale. Josephine had spent the last twelve years searching for me, because she wanted to find the daughter of the Slayer. It was written that a daughter of the Slayer, who inherited her mother's powers, would join her sister Slayer on the hellmouth and together, they would destroy it.

I was that daughter, possessing my mother's gifts and was in every way a Slayer myself, even if I hadn't been called like the others before me. In order to save Buffy and our friends, I killed Josephine and we began to fight together to protect the hellmouth. Somewhere along the way, we became more than just friends; we became sisters.

And Angel and I grew closer, too. He was the big brother that I'd always wanted and he told me on more than one occasion that I was like the sister he wished that he hadn't killed. We were a family. Me, Buffy, Angel, Willow, Xander, Giles . . . even Cordelia was family. And when Willow started dating Oz, he was welcomed into the Scooby Gang.

But a dark threat loomed ahead of us and unknown to anybody, the curse that the gypsies placed on him a hundred years ago came with a clause. And when Buffy and Angel consummated their relationship, I lost Angel to his demon and Buffy to her grief at losing her soul mate.

For months, I helped Buffy fight Angelus, but along the way, I also fell in love. His name was Jesse Bryant and he too was a victim of vampires. His mother had been turned the previous year and when he met me, he knew I was no stranger to the supernatural. We fought together and eventually developed feelings that were more than merely friends.

But Angelus was still out there and then Alcaltha came. Alcaltha was a demon who could unleash hell onto the world. At the same time, we discovered the gypsy curse that had been placed on Angel the century before had been revived and Willow decided to use it while Buffy and I went to face Angelus, to give her time to curse him. But it turned out to be a trap, ending with our friends put into the hospital and Buffy and me wanted for murder.

Willow was in a coma for awhile, but she woke up and insisted on redoing the curse to help Buffy, who was on her way to kill Angelus. She insisted that I stay behind to protect our friends. I reluctantly agreed. It was a decision that I would regret for the rest of my life.

Because Willow sent Xander the message about what we were doing, but he never gave her the message. Instead, he told her to kill Angelus and destroy the man she loved with no chance of getting him back. It's funny, how one little thing can destroy everything. Because Buffy never got the message, she had no idea what was coming and just as Angel was returned to her, she was forced to send him to hell. Angel's blood opened the portal and only his blood would close it.

I wrangled that particular piece of information out of Xander and I raced to the mansion to warn Buffy, but it was already too late. Alcaltha was dormant and there was no sign of Buffy or Angel.

Well, if it were me in her position and I'd just been forced to kill the man that I loved, I knew where I would go. I managed to get to the bus station just in time and found Buffy just as she was about to board the bus to Los Angeles. I didn't stop her though; she needed to get away, to be able to heal before she came back home. So I just hugged her goodbye, told her that I loved her, and let her leave, not telling anyone where she went.

With Jesse by my side, I fought to protect the hellmouth in Buffy's absence. Willow, Xander, and Oz helped us, but every night, I would lay awake, wondering what would happen if Buffy didn't come home. I'd lost the two people I loved most in the world in one night . . . and I'd also lost my family for a second time.

But Buffy did come home and with her return came Angel's resurrection, granted by the Powers that Be. I was out patrolling with Buffy when we stumbled upon Angel, wild and feral thanks to years in hell, and we got him back to the mansion, chaining him up so he couldn't hurt anybody. We nursed him back to health, but the danger was far from passed. He and Buffy resumed a shaky relationship, both of them terrified of what would happen if Angel received one moment of happiness. Everything would return to where we'd been before and neither one of them wanted to go back to that terrible place again.

Jesse and I were falling madly in love, but just as we were getting to the point where we both wanted our relationship to move forward, a Slayer by the name of Faith came to the hellmouth and turned our world upside down.

Along with the mayor, the newest big bad, she summoned a demon to possess me and I was shoved inside myself while the demon remained on the surface, destroying my life and those I cared about most.

I could only watch, trying desperately to get Jesse to hear me, when she mocked him, taunted him, and killed his little brother Jake, who was only eight years old. I still see Jake's face in my nightmares, still can remember that knife as I slid it into his small body and watched him die. Jesse discovered this and said some cruel and horrible things to me before he left Sunnydale, leaving for San Francisco, and I was left possessed. And the one person I thought for sure would know that it wasn't me was gone.

In the end, it was Angel who discovered the truth. When the demon attacked him, to get him out of the way for the Ascension, I was able to break through the possession and scream a warning to him. He realized at once what had happened and knocked me out before taking me to Buffy and Giles to exorcise the demon out of my body. But they couldn't get rid of the memories.

Once Faith realized that I was in charge of my body again, she knew that she had to get one of us out of the way, so she shot Angel with a poisoned arrow, which could only be cured with the blood of a Slayer. By this time, we knew that there was no way that we could help Faith—and right now, it was a choice between her and Angel. For both me and Buffy, that choice would've been Angel every single time.

I stayed behind to keep watch over Angel while Buffy went to go confront Faith and kill her so Angel could drink her blood. She did manage to defeat Faith, just not the way that we intended. Faith jumped off of her balcony and into a truck below in order to avoid Buffy's triumph. Someone found her later and took her to the hospital, where she was placed in a coma. The head trauma was so severe that they believed that she might never come out of it. I don't believe that for a second, though; if I know Faith, she'll come out of it eventually and then we'll have to deal with a very dangerous and vengeful Slayer.

With Faith out of the picture, it was left to Buffy or me to heal Angel—and he wasn't willing to drink from either of us. In the end, she had to punch him not once but three times in order to force him to drink from her. She had to be rushed to the hospital and we were left wondering we'd be fighting the Ascension without the senior Slayer. Thankfully, though, she pulled through and we were able to defeat the Mayor by blowing up the school—literally, actually. And the hellmouth was safe for another day.

But afterwards, I discovered a horrible truth: Angel had broken up with Buffy and was leaving Sunnydale, going to Los Angeles.

And unfortunately, I couldn't stay on the hellmouth either. I was almost convicted of murder, but Giles contacted the Watchers' Council and they helped clear me of the charges, since it hadn't really been me doing them. But before I was possessed, I'd had a full ride to UCSunnydale on an art scholarship; my future was pretty much set, but once they found out I'd been involved in a homicide, they took it away. After I was cleared of the charges, it was too late. They'd already given it to another girl, leaving me with no way to pay for school next fall.

Buffy was more than willing to help me with the aftermath of my possession, but I could see it on Willow and Xander's faces every time that they looked at me. They blamed me for what I'd done while possessed. I had Jake's blood on my hands. Every time that I looked at them, I could see it reflected in their eyes. They wouldn't forgive me so easily for it.

Even Giles was uneasy around me. He was the only father figure that I'd ever known, but he still was uncomfortable.

And Joyce . . . Buffy's mother . . . she took me when I had nowhere else to go, put a roof over my head, but she took it away, told me I wasn't welcome in her house.

There was no way that I could possibly stay, not with everything that had happened here. The only reason to stay here was for my sister and Buffy knew that I needed to get away. Away from Sunnydale, away from the memories of what I'd done, and away from the people who were supposed to support me, yet blamed me somehow for things that I couldn't control.

But they weren't the only ones; I blamed myself for everything that I'd done and for killing Jake. The nightmares alone were bad enough, but every time I saw a kid around his age, the guilt would resurface. I could barely even function. As much as Willow and Xander hated me right now, they couldn't possibly hate me any more than I hated myself.

I couldn't possibly stay in Sunnydale; the memories would haunt me and eventually drive me crazy. And I was afraid that if I stayed, I'd turn into Faith.

Buffy would always be my sister and if she needed me, I would drop everything I was doing to go help her, but Sunnydale was no longer my home. It couldn't be—not after everything that had happened. So after a tearful goodbye to my sister, I left Sunnydale behind.

After that, I mostly just wandered, taking up odd jobs in whatever dump I happened to be at in order to pay for gas and food and stuff. Eventually, I hit the road and traveled around the country, but the supernatural was bound to catch up with me sooner or later.

And with Slayers, it's always sooner.

Not even a week after I left Sunnydale, I came across this vampire nest in southern Nevada.

They never even knew what hit them.

There were others too . . . once I was certain that the town was safe, I moved on, fully intending to take a road trip, get away from the Slayer gig for awhile, but I barely got to the next town before I found another supernatural being, this time a demon possessing a girl. I exorcised the demon, but the poor girl didn't make it.

Werewolves . . . ghosts . . . demons . . . vampires . . . curses . . . almost everything that I ever encountered while on the hellmouth I stumbled upon. I guess I should have known better; I wasn't going to get out of the Slayer gig. Maybe I could outrun it for awhile, but eventually, it would catch up with me.

So I gave into the inevitable. If I couldn't escape my destiny, then I was just going to face it head on. I couldn't go back to the hellmouth, but I could find supernatural jobs around the country and take care of them so innocent people could live another day.

Over time, the saving-people-thing made me feel less guilty about what happened back home. I could still see myself driving that knife into Jake, but over time, I knew that, really, I couldn't have done anything different. I had done everything humanly possibly to break free, but it wasn't enough. Even Buffy and Angel told me time and time again that it wasn't my fault.

It didn't take me very long to find others doing the same thing I was doing. I sometimes came across them when I was working on a job. Sometimes, we would work together and other times, they would tell me to take a hike.

After awhile, I began lowering my guards around them and telling them who I was, but I soon learned that it wasn't the best idea. Hunters aren't exactly receptive of _any_ supernatural creature, even the Slayer. We might be on the side of good, but as far as they're concerned, we possess powers we shouldn't, so we should be put down.

So finally, I just stopped telling them who I was. Granted, I wasn't exactly supposed to be telling anyone of that fact, anyway. One of the most basic rules of a Slayer is that people aren't supposed to know who we are. We're supposed to be work in secret, so vampires don't know who the Slayer is.

Granted, hunters aren't _exactly_ civilians, but if they're just going to try and kill me because I'm not completely human, because I possess abilities that are more than human, then it was just better to let them think whatever they wanted when they noticed my enhanced speed and strength.

I had been traveling around the country and hunting the supernatural for almost six months when I met two brothers who would turn my life upside down and change the course of my destiny for all time.

And their names were Sam and Dean Winchester.

My name is Kaitlyn Sawyer, born Katherine Seymour, daughter of Gwyneth Seymour, sister of Buffy Summers and Faith Lehane, and a Vampire Slayer. I am eighteen years old.

**AN:** The daughter of the Slayer thing is roughly based on my story "Chosen by Destiny." The only thing I changed was her name and what happened with her father, but if you want to read the finer details, you might want to check that out. Anyway, thanks for reading and I've already started on the second chapter, so the sooner I get reviews, the sooner I update. Thanks for reading!

Lady Dawson


	2. Bloodlust I

**Shadows of Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: Bloodlust I

"You look a little young to be a med student," Jeff commented as he led her into the Red Lodge morgue, looking at her up and down.

"That's possibly very sweet of you," Kaitlyn said, giving him a smile. "Thanks." Jeff just blushed under her gaze and she inwardly rolled her eyes, marveling at the idiocy of men in general as she looked around the office. "So, is that where you guys keep the bodies at? I heard that there were some murders here the past week or so . . ."

"Yeah, that's right," Jeff agreed, clearing his throat and trying to regain his composure, but he was still a bright shade of red as his gaze flickered across Kaitlyn's sky-blue eyes. "Uh . . . two, actually. The last one Christina Flanigan was found only two days ago. Same deal . . . head cut off . . . the police have no leads, as far as I know."

"And I'm sure that you know a lot," Kaitlyn said with a smile at him. "So is there any chance I could see it? It would really help with this paper that I'm working on and my professor's kind of . . . well . . . I don't see how to describe him and remain a lady," she said with a sigh, shaking her head.

"Um . . . well, technically, I'm not supposed to . . . but sure, no problem," he said quickly, leading her through the room and pulling open the door to where they kept the bodies at. He pulled open a compartment, revealing a girl in her late teens/early twenties. Or rather, just her body. Her head was stashed in a box that lay right between her feet.

Kaitlyn frowned as she inspected the body carefully, well aware that Jeff was checking her out from behind, but she just ignored him. She'd heard about these murders a few days ago, when she'd been working on a job a couple towns over, this ghost terrorizing a family that had moved into its new home. Normally, she wouldn't have bothered, because it didn't seem like her kind of thing, but there were also the cattle mutilations. The cattle in the area seemed to be dropping like flies lately and no one seemed to know why.

But Kaitlyn was determined to find out; more often than not, the "freaky" stuff was never just some odd occurrence.

Hearing the door to the morgue open up, Kaitlyn glanced up from her inspection, looking towards Jeff, who looked bemused before he muttered, "Hang on, I'll be right back," scampering out to see what the commotion was. "Can I help you, gentlemen?"

"John?" a deep, male voice said from the other room. Kaitlyn pierced her lips together, glancing towards the door while picking up the box to inspect the head and see if there were any clues from that.

"Jeff."

"Right . . . Jeff, I knew that. Dr. Dworkin needs to see you in his office right away," the guy told him.

"But Dr. Dworkin is on vacation."

"Well, he's back and he's angry and he's screaming for you, man, so if I were you, I would—okay," he said as Kaitlyn heard the sound of running feet and the door closing behind him. "Hey, those Satanists in Florida, they marked their victims, didn't they?"

"Yeah, reversed pentacle on the forehead," another guy said.

The first guy snorted. "So much wacky stuff happens in Florida."

Kaitlyn glanced up as the two guys stepped into the room, stopping dead in their tracks when they saw her. One of them was shorter, with light brown hair and green eyes while the other one was taller, with floppy brown hair that fell casually into his deep brown eyes. Her heart skipped a beat as she looked at the taller guy, who looked like he might be a few years younger than his companion. One thing that she noticed immediately was that they were holding themselves in the way that hunters traditionally stood.

"Hey, can I offer you two a piece of advice?" she suggested. "You might want to check and make sure the office is completely empty before you start talking about anything supernaturally."

Both of them looked at each other, then at her. She smiled at them. "I'm going to take a shot in the dark here and say that you two are here about the murders and mutilated cattle too?"

"Uh . . . yeah," the taller guy said, bemused. "You're a hunter?"

"Of course," she said, but inwardly, she was really hoping that this wasn't going to be another case of Slayer-slaughter. She'd already had to shake off a couple hunters this week when they realized who she was. "I'm Kaitlyn Sawyer."

"I'm Sam Winchester," he introduced himself before gesturing towards the guy next to him. "This is my brother Dean."

"Nice to meet you guys," she said as they joined her by the table and she pulled off the lid, revealing the severed head of Christina Flanigan.

"Well, no pentagram," Dean stated obviously as they all peered into the box, looking for any sign of what might have killed her.

"Pentagram?" Kaitlyn repeated dubiously, cocking her head at them.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, we were thinking that it was some kind of ritual, with the murders and cattle mutilations." Kaitlyn nodded slowly, studying the girl carefully, but unfortunately, there wasn't even the slightest hint of what might have caused her death, except that her head wasn't attached to her body.

"Maybe we should, you know, look in her mouth, see if those wackos stuffed anything down her throat," Dean suggested, wagging his eyebrows at his brother. "You know, kind of like the moth in Silence of the Lambs."

"You do know that's a movie, not real, right?" Kaitlyn queried as Sam pushed the box towards his brother.

"Here, go ahead."

"No, you go ahead," Dean countered.

"What?"

"Put the lotion in the basket."

"Oh, for crying out loud," Kaitlyn complained, pushing them both out of the way. "Men are such babies."

"Hey!" Dean protested as she gingerly lifted the girl's mouth open and began poking around in there, but unfortunately, there was nothing in there that would be of any use. "Wait, lift the lip up again."

"What?" Kaitlyn complained.

"I think I saw something," Dean insisted.

Kaitlyn shook her head. "Is he always like this?" she wanted to know, looking sideways at Sam.

"Usually," he replied as she lifted the lip up again, noticing that there was a hole on the gum. "What is that?"

Dean reached forward and pressed against the gum. Kaitlyn watched in a mixture of disbelief and confusion as a narrow, sharp tooth descended from above. "What the . . ." she breathed, staring as Dean released it and it moved back up, disappearing into her gums.

"It's a tooth," Sam whispered.

"Sam, that's a fang," Dean corrected him. "Retractable set of vampire fangs, you've got to be kidding me."

"Hold on a second," Kaitlyn said, holding up her hands in protest. "She can't be a vampire; vampires go dust in the wind whenever they're killed."

"Pure myth, sweetheart," Dean told her dismissively.

Kaitlyn gawked at him. "Sweetheart?" she repeated incredulously. Sam winced slightly and she folded her arms across her chest, glaring at Dean. "Listen up, buddy, I've been fighting vampires for over two years now and I've killed more than you'll possibly seen in one lifetime. I know how they're killed. You stake them and they turn to dust; simple as that."

Sam actually looked surprised and Dean looked doubtful. "The only vampires we've seen are like these and they actually can go out in the daylight."

"The ones I've fought can't," Kaitlyn said slowly.

"So what, there's two kinds of vampires?" Dean demanded incredulously.

"Maybe two different breeds," she suggested, making a mental note to call Angel and ask him. "Either way, we need to find out some more about this. Come on, let's get out of here before Jeff comes back," she suggested, closing the box and replacing it in the compartment, shutting it closed before making her way out the door.

* * *

><p>Apparently, this new breed of vampires—or whatever the big deal was—usually hung around taverns and bars, so Kaitlyn headed down to the nearest one with Sam and Dean to check it out. Of course, she was pretty sure that Dean was just feeding her this so he could get a drink, which of course he did as soon as he stepped up to the counter, ordering them three beers.<p>

"Make it two and a Coke," Kaitlyn requested, smiling at the bartender, who nodded. She shrugged at the brothers' strange looks. "Hey, I'm only eighteen."

"Seriously? I thought you were Sammy's age," Dean said, looking surprised. "What kind of teenager doesn't try to sneak a little booze now and then, though?"

"The kind who prefers for her head to be clear when I'm working on a case," Kaitlyn replied, giving him a sharp look. Sam chuckled as he sat down next to her. "How do you work with him without killing him?"

"Practice," Sam said lazily. "Lots and lots of practice."

"Well, I'd say you should be ready for the championships, then," Kaitlyn drawled, earning an evil look from Dean.

"Oh, you two are hilarious," he grumbled. "You ought to get married." Sam just swatted his brother, who looked up at the bartender as he handed them their drinks.

"And we also need some information," he told him, producing a fifty dollar bill and handing it to him. "We're looking for some people; they would have come into town about six months ago, probably pretty rowdy, like to drink . . ."

"They would be part of the night crowd," Kaitlyn said helpfully. "Sleep all day, party all night."

"Barker farm got leased out a couple months ago. Real winners," he complained. "They've been in here a lot—drinkers, noisy . . . I've had to 86 them once or twice."

Kaitlyn nodded, though she could feel someone watching them from behind and she straightened, discreetly glancing out of the corner of her eye, noting a lone figure sitting in the corner, hidden in the shadows, but there was something about him that Kaitlyn didn't immediately like; she couldn't put her finger on it, but something just told her that this guy was bad news.

Sam nudged her toe and she looked at him sharply, about to ask what the problem was, but he just reached down and grabbed her hand, pulling her out the door. Just as they reached it, Kaitlyn noted that the guy had disappeared from his spot in the corner.

"You guys noticed?" she questioned.

"Of course," Dean said, shrugging. "So let's find out who this guy is, Princess."

Kaitlyn sighed. "Will you please stop calling me that?"

"Punch him in the gut," Sam advised her. "That's the only way to get him to shut up."

She grinned at him. "I'll remember that," she said quietly as they began heading down the back of an alley, feigning ignorance of anybody following them, even though her Slayer senses were in overdrive. Once they'd put a good distance between themselves and their pursuer, they hid amongst the crates and shadows, waiting for him to show himself.

It didn't take very long; he was in hot pursuit and came right after them, not even a minute later, his gaze flickering all around them, searching for wherever they had gone. Now that he was in the light, Kaitlyn could pick out his features. He was older than they were, with a hardened expression that came from years of hardship.

When he came to the spot where they had hid, the guy stopped dead in his tracks and looked behind him, scanning the surroundings and passing over the spot where Kaitlyn was hidden, before looking back in front of him, only to find that Sam and Dean were right in front of him. Kaitlyn moved out of her hiding place to help them, delivering one good kick to the groin and sending him reeling backwards, punching him in the jaw and pinning him to the wall.

"Nice moves," Dean said, looking impressed as he pressed a knife to the guy's throat. "Now smile. Come on, show us those pearly whites."

"Oh, for the love of—you want to stick that thing someplace else?" the guy demanded. "I'm not a vampire." Kaitlyn exchanged a look with Sam. "Yeah, that's right, I heard you guys in there."

"How do you know about vampires?" she inquired. He just glared at her. "You know, I _was_ holding back. I can hit a lot harder if you like. Now what do you know?"

"How you kill them," he replied, still glaring at her before glancing at Dean. "Now seriously, bro. That knife's making me itch." Dean didn't move, just cocked his head and just as he started to pull away, Sam pinned him harder against the wall. "Whoa, easy there, chachi." He opened his mouth, revealing perfectly normal gums. "See? Fangless. Happy?"

"Ecstatic," Kaitlyn muttered, reluctantly releasing her grip on him. She still didn't have a good feeling about this guy.

"Now," he said as Sam and Dean pulled back too, surveying all three of them. "Who are you three, other than fellow hunters?"

"I'm Dean Winchester," the elder brother said. "This is my brother Sam and Kaitlyn Sawyer. Who are you?"

"Gordon Walker," he replied, but his smile had grown wide as soon as he heard the name 'Winchester.' He shook his head with a laugh. "Sam and Dean Winchester. I can't believe it. You know, I met your old man once. Good man, great hunter. I heard that he passed; I'm sorry. It's some pretty big shoes, but from what I hear, you guys fill them. Great trackers, good in a tight spot—"

"You seem to know a lot about our family," Dean said as they followed him to his truck and Gordon pulled out his arsenal from behind his seat.

"Word travels fast," Gordon said with a shrug. "You know how hunters talk. And I've heard a lot about you, sweetheart," he said, looking it Kaitlyn's direction. She shrugged uncomfortably, not at all certain what was going to come up. "Hear you're handy to have around in a tight spot. And I can safely rule out that the word of you having a pretty good right hook isn't just talk." He actually winced as he rubbed his jaw.

"My mom was a hunter," Kaitlyn said flatly. "She died when I was four."

"I'm sorry about that," he said, sounding just as sympathetic as he had when talking about Mr. Winchester. "Was it a demon?"

"Vampires, actually," she said quietly. He nodded in understanding. "So those two kills—they were yours?"

"Been here two weeks," he replied with a quick grin.

"Did you check out that Barker farm?" Dean wanted to know.

"It's just a bust," Walker told them. "Just a bunch of hippie freaks. Though they could kill you with that patchouli smell alone."

"Where's the nest then?" Dean asked.

"I've got this one covered. Look, don't get me wrong, it's a real pleasure meeting all three of you, but I've been on this thing for over a year. I killed a fang back in Austin, tracked the nest all the way up here. I'll finish it."

"We could help," Kaitlyn told him.

"Thanks, but uh, I'm kind of a go-at-it-alone type of guy," he told her.

"Come on, man, I've been itching for a hunt," Dean complained, looking at him almost pleadingly.

"Sorry," Walker said, unconcerned. "But hey, I heard there's a Chupacabra two states over. You go ahead and knock yourselves out," he told them as he climbed into his car. "It was real good meeting you, though. I'll buy you a drink on the flip side," he said as he drove away, leaving Kaitlyn and the Winchesters standing there.

She let out a deep sigh. "Why is it that men can never ask or accept help?" she complained, turning on her heel and heading back to where she left her car.

"Would you lay off the men-bashing?" Dean grumbled, glaring at her. "You're not seriously just gonna leave here, are you?"

"Oh, it's not the first time that I've been told to take a hike when I'm on a job," Kaitlyn told him as they followed her. "Actually, a lot of hunters tell me that because they think women can't do the job."

"So what do you usually do?" Sam wondered.

She looked back at him. "You tell me. Do you take me for the type of girl who'd just let someone else make her decisions for her and scram when they tell her to?"

He grinned slightly. "No."

"I find a job, I finish it," Kaitlyn replied, opening up her trunk and looting through her weapons, producing a crossbow. "And I don't plan on leaving here until I'm sure the people here are safe and sound."

"Sounds good," Dean said brightly. "But pitch the crossbow, sweetheart, I'll get you a real weapon."

Kaitlyn took a deep breath, closed her eyes, counted under her breath to ten and then turned and successfully punched him right in the jaw, sending him to the ground with a groan of pain. Sam snickered as Kaitlyn folded her arms across her chest, raising her eyebrows at him.

"You are one insane woman to deal with," he muttered, glaring up at her from where he lay.

"I've often been told," Kaitlyn assured him, reaching in the trunk and producing a couple stakes. "So how many vamps have you guys killed?"

"Uh . . ."

"Well . . ."

"Figured," she said, tossing them to each brother. "They may be a different breed, but I'm guessing they die the exact same way. So strike fast and hard."

"And what are you planning on doing with that thing?" Dean queried, nodding towards the crossbow.

"Keeping you from getting yourselves killed," she said brightly. "So let's go save Gordon, shall we?"

It didn't take very long to find Gordon; his truck was down at the mill, sticking out like a sore thumb. He was lucky they showed up when they did, as he was about to become headless via a power saw.

Swearing under her breath, Kaitlyn dove into the fight with Sam and Dean, grabbing the saw before it detached Gordon's head from his body and pulled him free before rushing to assist the brothers.

But if she was perfectly honest, they had it under control. They pinned the vampire to the ground and Dean used the power saw, still running, to hack off his head.

Gordon got to his feet, rubbing his neck as he looked around at them. "Guess I'd better buy you those drinks, eh?"


	3. Bloodlust II

**Shadows of Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Three: Bloodlust II

"Another one bites the dust," Gordon said triumphantly, lifting up his shot glass to toast with Dean before downing the alcohol in one gulp. Kaitlyn inwardly sighed, her own glass untouched. She'd tried to explain to him that she didn't drink, not to mention she was underage, but he just waved this aside and ordered her something without even asking her what she wanted, just celebrating the latest kill. Dean was right along with him, drinking his own glass greedily while Sam was sitting there with his arms crossed, looking just as awkward and uncomfortable as she felt.

Briefly, she wondered how long she could sit here before she could leave and not appear to be rude. Normally it didn't matter—hunters weren't exactly sticklers for protocol—but she actually liked Sam and Dean. If it weren't for Gordon, then she might actually like to hang out here a little while longer, but the guy was just . . . well, he was one of those hunters who saw the world in only black and white, no shades of grey. It didn't matter to him what or who they were killing, just so long as they were inhuman. If they weren't human, then they deserved to be killed.

And it was that attitude that Kaitlyn detested with a passion.

"You all right, you two?" Dean interrupted her thoughts, looking over at the pair of them.

"I'm good," Kaitlyn assured him.

"Fine," Sam said at the same time.

"Well, lighten up a little, Sammy," Gordon said as he downed another shot, earning an evil look from Sam.

"He's the only who gets to call me that," he informed him, gesturing towards his brother.

Gordon just looked at him, not at all bothered by his attitude. "Okay, no offence meant. Just celebrating a little; job well done."

"Well, I don't really consider decapitations a good time," Kaitlyn told him crisply. "It's just the work that we have to do."

"It's not like it was human," Gordon said dismissively. Kaitlyn gritted her teeth, trying very hard not to punch him in the jaw. "Come on, girlie, you've got to learn to have a little more fun with your job."

"See?" Dean said with a laugh, looking towards his brother and pointed at Gordon with a grin. "That's what I've been trying to tell him. You could learn a thing or two from this guy, Sammy."

"Yeah, I bet I could. Look, I'm not gonna bring you guys down. I'm just gonna go back to the motel."

"You guys staying at the Dragonfly?" Kaitlyn asked. It was the cheapest motel in town; she figured that if they were staying anywhere, it would be there. Her guess was right on as Sam nodded. "I'll come with you. That's where I'm staying, too. I'll drive you," she offered.

He smiled. "Thanks."

She stood up, gathering up her belongings and headed for the door as Dean called after them, "Hey, Sammy, remind me to beat that buzz-kill out of you later, all right?"

Sam didn't reply as he followed Kaitlyn out of the bar and she let him to her car, parked right next to Dean's Impala, and climbed into the passenger's seat. "You know, you didn't have to do that," he told her. "I could have made it back on my own. You don't have to leave, too."

"Please," Kaitlyn said, rolling her eyes, "I was looking for an excuse to get away; I was having about as much fun as you were." Sam grinned slightly. "Besides, there's something about that guy that just . . . rubs me the wrong way." She started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, navigating her way through Red Lodge. "There's something funny about this case, though . . ."

"What's that?"

"Well, this didn't seem like a cadre-of-vampires-looking-to-party kind of case," Kaitlyn said, shaking her head. "I don't know, but . . . I don't know," she muttered. "It just . . . it feels weird, you know."

"Tell me about it," Sam agreed. "I was doing some research on this town earlier and it doesn't really seem like vampire country. The missing persons, the murders, they're usual for a town of this size. As a matter of fact, they're lower. So whatever it is, the vampires aren't killing in town."

Kaitlyn shook her head. "So what got you into all of this anyway?" she asked him, pulling into the motel lot.

"Uh . . . my mom died when I was a baby," he explained. "That's when my dad became obsessed with hunting down the thing that killed her—which we still haven't found," he sighed. "But he raised Dean and me in this life."

"Ouch," Kaitlyn muttered. "And I thought I had it bad. At least I had a couple years of normalcy."

"It wasn't that bad," Sam admitted. "I mean, sure, I would have given anything just to have some kind of normal life—which I got when I ran away to go to college—but it could have been a lot worse. Dad just did the best that he could. Mom was the love of his life and he wanted to prevent any other husbands from going through the same thing he went through."

"Do you remember your mom?"

He shook his head. "No, I was only six months old when she died. If it weren't for pictures, I wouldn't even know what she looked like."

"I barely remember mine," Kaitlyn admitted. "I was only four when she was killed, but . . . I remember how soft her hand was when she was tucking me in and I remember how her hair shimmered in the sunlight." She stared off in the distance, then looked back at him. "So you went to college?"

"Yeah, Stanford, pre-law," he said with a hint of pride in his voice. "I was just about to get into law school when . . ." He trailed off.

"When what?" Kaitlyn asked him.

Sam was very quiet for a minute. "When the demon that killed my mom came back," he said finally. "He came back and killed my girlfriend Jessica. Dean came to my apartment to ask for my help in finding Dad; he had gone missing. So I went with him and helped him finish the job my dad was on, but Dad had already disappeared by the time we got there. When I came back, I found Jessica pinned to the ceiling and she was engulfed in flames. There was no body left to bury."

Kaitlyn was white by the time that he was finished. "My god, Sam," she whispered, laying a hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry."

"It was a long time ago," he said quietly.

She studied him for a long moment. "You want to come and hang out in my room?" she asked him. "We could grab some snacks, some sodas, watch some really bad TV or something." Sam looked over at her, smiling slightly. "Or we could play poker; how much money you go on you?" she said teasingly.

That got him to laugh. "About fifty bucks or so," he said.

"Well, prepare to lose it, my friend," Kaitlyn said, clapping her hands together. She very rarely ever lost at poker. Angel had taught her how to play a few years ago, but he stopped playing with her after she beat him every time. And winning against somebody who'd been playing the game for two hundred plus years was actually pretty impressive.

"Sounds good," Sam said, grinning. "But I kind of want to make a call first, to a friend. I want to see if she knows anything about Gordon."

Kaitlyn nodded. "That's okay; I wanted to call a friend of mine and see if he knows anything about these different breeds of vampires. He's sort of an expert on them," she explained lamely when he raised an eyebrow.

"Oh . . . all right, well, I'll meet you in your room in about twenty minutes?" Sam suggested. "I'll grab some sodas and stuff."

"Sounds good," Kaitlyn agreed before she headed to her room, clicking open the door and tossing her jacket on the bed, running a hand through her hair as she retrieved her phone from her pocket, pressing the speed dial for Angel.

He answered on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Angel," she greeted him. "It's Kaitlyn."

"Kait!" Angel said, sounding happy to hear from her. "It's good to hear from you. How are you?"

"I'm good," she assured him. "I'm in Montana right now, working on a case with a couple of other hunters."

"They're not trying to kill you, are they?"

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes; she made the mistake of telling Angel about the times that hunters tried to kill her because she was the Slayer. She loved Angel; he was like a big brother to her and he pretty much felt the same way about her, but sometimes, he could be a little overprotective.

And that, too, was pretty older brotherly.

"No, they're fine," she promised him. "I've learned my lesson about that, Angel, I'm not about to blurt out the whole Slayer thing. They're actually pretty nice guys, though. I could see being friends with them," she said thoughtfully, her heart skipping a beat when she thought about Sam.

"That's good," Angel said, interrupting her thoughts and she was extremely glad that he couldn't see her blush. "I worry about you being alone—especially hunting alone. I know that you did it a lot in Sunnydale, but accidents can happen."

"You know, I spent that entire summer that Buffy was in L.A. slaying on my own," Kaitlyn complained. "Give me a little credit, Angel."

He just chuckled. "So I'm guessing that you're not just calling to check in."

"Well, that's part of it," Kaitlyn admitted. "I worry about you being alone with Cordelia as much as you worry about me being alone." He laughed again. "And I also wanted to ask you something."

"Go ahead."

"Well, the case that I'm working on is about this nest of vampires," she explained, "but the thing is, they don't . . . well, they're not your kind of vampires. They—"

"Can go out into the sunlight?" Angel interrupted her. "And their bodies don't turn to dust when they die? And they get turned simply by a vampire slipping them some blood?" Kaitlyn was speechless. "It's not the first time that I've had to deal with this other breed. So did you find the nest?"

"Not exactly," Kaitlyn admitted, still stunned. "We're still working on that part, but we did find one earlier. So you knew that there were other vampires out there this whole time?"

"Sure, most vamps know about the other breed and vice versa. We just don't hang out in bars together," Angel told her.

"You don't hang out with other vamps, period," Kaitlyn reminded him. "So is there anything that I should know about them? They can still be killed the regular way, right? Stake to the heart?"

"And cutting off their head always works," Angel added.

"Good to know."

"I'm happy to help," Angel said. "Besides, anything to get me away from Cordelia for a few minutes," he added weakly. "I forgot how . . ."

"Annoying she can be?" Kaitlyn suggested innocently.

"I was going to go with exasperating, but yeah, that would work too," Angel agreed dryly. Both of them laughed. "So . . . have you heard from her?"

"Yeah," Kaitlyn said gently. "She sounded . . . okay the last time I talked to her, semi-excited about college. But I could tell that she missed you, probably more than she's willing to admit. Just like you miss her more than you're willing to admit," she added pointedly.

Angel said nothing.

"You know, Angel," Kaitlyn said after a long pause, "you're my best friend and you're almost my brother and I love you to death, but sometimes, you can bit a little bit of an idiot, especially when it comes to Buffy. Don't you know she's never going to get over you? It doesn't matter if she finds a nice, normal boyfriend. It doesn't matter what she says, she's never going to forget about you."

"She deserves to have a normal life," Angel said stubbornly. "And she's never going to get that with me there."

Kaitlyn let out an exasperated sigh. "Liam O'Conner, I swear, sometimes you are the most stubborn, pigheaded man that I've ever met!" she exclaimed, using his real name, which she only used when she was really annoyed with him. "Buffy is the _Slayer_; she's never going to get a normal life. And a normal guy would get himself killed with her. It's not like it's the first time that she's had the chance to be with a normal guy. Buffy told me about the guys she tried dating before you two were involved; a few of them just about got themselves killed when they were with her. The only time that I've ever seen her happy was when she was with you or talking about you."

Angel sighed. "She at least deserves the chance to try," he replied, not budging.

"I'm not going to win this argument with you, am I?" Kaitlyn complained. "Fine, have it your way, but let me just say, for the record, I think you're making a really big mistake here."

"Duly noted."

"Good," Kaitlyn said compliantly. "I have one other question about these vampires, by the way. Sam, one of the hunters that I'm working with, said that this town has below average missing persons and deaths. Is there a chance that they might not be hurting humans?"

"It's possible," Angel admitted thoughtfully. "Actually, I do _know_ of a nest of vampires who lives off of animal blood like I do. I met the leader of them about . . . fifty years ago or so. Her name is Lenore," he told her. "And if she's one of them, then you don't need to worry about a thing."

Kaitlyn sighed. "Now I feel guilty about killing that vampire earlier," she muttered. "I _knew_ there was something off about this case."

"Maybe," Angel told her. "It might not be her. They could just be getting their food from somewhere else, trying not to draw attention to themselves. I'm just saying that if it _is_ her, you've got nothing to worry about it."

"Right . . . thanks, Angel."

"Anytime. Ugh," he groaned.

"What's wrong?" she inquired.

"Doyle," he muttered. She chuckled, remembering his description of the half-demon seer that had come to him a few weeks ago. Their old "friend"—she was using the term _very_ loosely here—Cordelia Chase, from Sunnydale, had joined him after Doyle had a vision about this girl in danger, which ultimately led to Cordelia, who joined the firm while pursing her acting career. "I should go."

"Bye," she said cheerfully and clicked the off button before glancing over at the clock. Almost a half hour had passed since she had left Sam outside.

Worried, she snatched up her card key, tossing her cell on the bed and pulling on her jacket as she headed outside, looking around for the tall brunette.

"Sam?" she called out, walking around the motel towards the vending machines, sensing something amiss.

Her hand moving towards her stake, lying discreetly in her pocket, Kaitlyn scanned the area intently, blue eyes searching everywhere as she _sensed_ rather than heard someone coming up behind her, but before she could even turn around, the back of her head exploded with pain. The last thing that she saw before she blacked out was a very tall, very tall, pale person standing above her.

* * *

><p>"Kaitlyn!"<p>

Hearing her name, Kaitlyn stirred from her unconsciousness, her eyes fluttering open, her surroundings slowly coming into focus around her as she saw Sam sitting in a chair across from her, tied securely to the chair. A split-second later, Kaitlyn realized that she, too, was tied to her chair.

"Sam?" she moaned as she blinked at him. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," he replied. "Are you okay?"

"Don't worry about me," she assured him, though she had a splitting headache. "I've had worse. I'd kill for some Tylenol, though."

His mouth twitched ever so slightly as she realized for the first time that there was a woman standing in the room with them, paler than she should have been. And why shouldn't she be? She was a vampire, after all. There was another one in the room with her, looking at Kaitlyn and Sam with hungry eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked cautiously.

"My name is Lenore," the woman told her with an air of calmness. "I'm not going to hurt you. We just need to talk."

"Talk?" Sam repeated scathingly as Kaitlyn stared at the woman—Lenore. "Yeah, okay, but I might have a tough time paying much attention to much besides Eli's teeth."

"He won't hurt you either; you have my word."

"Your word?" Sam repeated, still looking at her with extreme distrust. "Oh, yeah, great, thanks. Listen, lady, no offence, but you're not the first vampire I've met."

"Sam," Kaitlyn whispered, trying to interfere here, but neither one of them was listening to her.

"We're not like the others," Lenore told him. "We don't kill humans and we don't drink their blood. We haven't for a long time."

"What is this, some kind of joke?"

"We_ are_ still alive, Sam," Kaitlyn interrupted, drawing the attention back to her and she fixed Lenore with her blue eyes. "I'm guessing that those cattle mutilations would be your handiwork, right? That's how you're managing to survive, off the blood of animals."

Lenore nodded once, watching her. "You don't seem at all surprise by this."

Kaitlyn just looked at her. "We have a friend in common, Lenore. A guy by the name of Angel? Or maybe you know him as Angelus?"

Lenore's eyes widened in surprise and she took a step back unexpectedly. "Yes, I know Angel. He's a good friend," she said softly.

"The best," Kaitlyn agreed. "I called him earlier, to ask him about the different breed of vampires. He told me that he thought you might be here. He also told me that if you were here, then I had nothing to worry about. And I trust Angel with my life," she told her. "So if he says that you're okay, then you don't have to worry about me."

"Hold on," Sam interrupted, "you're telling me that they're responsible for all of the cattle mutilations?"

"Vampires don't have to feed off of humans in order to survive, Sam," Kaitlyn told him kindly. "They can feed off the blood of animals. It works just as well."

"It's not ideal," Lenore said with a touch of distaste, "in fact, it's disgusting. But it allows us to get by."

"Okay, uh . . . why?"

"Survival. No deaths, no missing locals, no reason for people like you to come looking for people like us. We blend in. Our kind is practically extinct. It turns out that we weren't quite as high up on the food chain as we imagined."

"Why are we explaining ourselves to these killers?" Eli challenged.

Lenore turned to him sharply. "Eli!"

He glared at Kaitlyn and Sam. "We choke on cow's blood so that none of _them_ suffer. Tonight, they murdered Conrad and they celebrated."

"Eli, that's _enough_," Lenore ordered. "What's done is done." She turned to Sam. "We're leaving this town tonight."

"Then why did you bring us here?" Kaitlyn wanted to know. "Why are you even talking to us?"

"Believe me, I'd rather not. But I know hunters. Once you have the scent, you'll keep tracking us. It doesn't matter where we go, you'll find us."

"So, you're asking us not to follow you."

"We have a right to live; we're not hurting anyone."

"So you keep saying, but give me one reason why I should believe you," Sam told her.

"You don't have to, Sam," Kaitlyn said quietly. All three heads turned towards her. "You don't have to believe her or even trust her. Just trust _me_."

Sam stared at her. "You believe her on account on what your friend says?"

"He's a good guy," Kaitlyn insisted. "And he knows his way around the vampire crowd. If there's anybody who can tell the difference between an evil and good vampire, it would be him. They wouldn't be the first vegetarian vampires that I've met," she said with a slight smile. Even Lenore cracked a small grin at the Twilight reference. "If they were feeding off humans, chances are, we'd be dead already."

For a long moment that contained an eternity, Sam just looked at Kaitlyn, brown eyes meeting blue. And then, after what seemed like forever, he gave a small, brief nod.

"All right," he conceded. "But for the record, I'm trusting _you_, not them."

"That's fine," Kaitlyn told him before looking at Lenore. "Look, we might be able to convince his brother, but I'm not so sure about Gordon Walker. The guy's bad news; I can feel it. So if you're going to leave, then you should get out of here as fast as you can. We can . . . try and knock some sense into him or something." Though Kaitlyn doubted very much that they'd be able to do anything to convince Gordon that these vampires were good. He was one of those hunters who saw everything in black and white, no grey.

Lenore nodded briefly. "I agree. Eli, take them back. Not a mark on them," she warned him.

Kaitlyn let out a deep breath, wondering how they were going to explain this to Dean—or worse, Gordon.

She just hoped that she could at least put some distance between them and hopefully give Lenore enough time to get away.


	4. Bloodlust III

**Shadows of Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Four: Bloodlust III

"Thanks for the ride," Kaitlyn said cheerfully as the vampire all but threw her and Sam out next to the hotel. Sam burst out laughing as the vampire gave her a dirty look, growling dangerously before he drove away into the night. "What? He did give us a ride," she pointed out as she made her way towards the hotel. "So how do you think we should do this?"

"Well, I don't think we should talk to Dean with Gordon there," Sam said honestly. "He's not going to take this well any way that we do it, but it'd be better if Gordon wasn't there. I don't know what the deal is with him, but it's like he's . . . I don't know," he confessed. "We lost our dad recently and Dean's been kind of weird ever since it happened."

"You know, that may be why Dean's connecting with Gordon," Kaitlyn suggested. "Maybe, on some unconscious level, he's trying to replace your dad with Gordon."

Sam looked worried. "Yeah, maybe," he said. "But like I said, this isn't going to go down well, so we'd better talk to Dean away from Gordon."

"Agreed . . . looks like both of them are here, though," Kaitlyn said, nodding to Dean's Impala and Gordon's truck that were sitting in the parking lot, right in front of Sam and Dean's room. "Okay . . . well, let's get this over with."

Nodding once, Sam made his way into the hotel room, sliding his card key into the lock and clicking it open, stepping inside with Kaitlyn right behind him, looking around at Dean, who was sitting at the table by the window with Gordon, looking as though they were going over some hunting strategies. Both of them looked up as soon as they stepped inside, though.

"Well, look who finally made it back," Dean said, wagging his eyebrows at Sam. "Did you get you a little action while you were gone?"

Kaitlyn scoffed, shaking her head in exasperation as Sam glared at his brother. "Can we talk to you alone?"

Dean raised his eyebrows, but shrugged as he followed them outside of the motel, making their way out of earshot. "What's going on?"

"Dean, we've got to rethink this hunt," Sam said without preamble, turning to his brother desperately. "Look, we've been to the nest and there are some things you really need to—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dean interrupted, his hazel eyes suddenly excited. "You _found_ the nest?"

"Not exactly," Kaitlyn replied, folding her arms across her chest. "It was more like they found us. They kind of brought us to their nest after we got back here."

"Well, how'd you guys get out? How many did you kill?"

"None," Sam replied.

"They didn't take us there to hurt us, Dean," Kaitlyn told him. "They just wanted to talk to us. And they let us go," she added calmly, causing Dean's eyebrows to shoot up in shock.

"They couldn't have."

"Well, they _did_," Kaitlyn told him shortly. "Dean, look, we need to talk about this hunt, okay? These vampires . . . they're not like other vampires. They're not killing people; they're feeding off the blood of animals. That's the reason why there's all of these cattle mutilations. They're feeding off of them rather than feed off of humans, because they don't want to hurt people anymore."

"Come on, you don't seriously believe that junk, do you?" Dean said, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "There is no such thing as a good vampire; they're soulless, evil, bloodsucking fiends and—"

Before he could finish, Kaitlyn had him pinned against his car. "You listen to me, Dean Winchester," she snapped furiously. "You don't know the first thing about vampires, okay? You may be a great hunter, but you don't know _anything_ about them. Because I can tell you right here and right now that it _is_ possible for vampires to start feeding off of animals and abstain from human blood. I know . . . because my best friend is a vampire who does that."

Underneath her firm grip, Dean froze in shock. Next to her, Sam's eyes went very wide.

"And let me tell you something," she added now that she had their complete attention, "he is one of the bravest people that I know. He would sacrifice his own life in order to save the world, just like I would and just like my sister would. He's not a monster; he's a hero."

No one said anything for a full minute as Kaitlyn glared down at Dean, slowly releasing her grip from him. He straightened, dusting his leather jacket off, looking at her with an expression torn between incredulity and shock.

"You're strong for such a little thing," he said at last.

Kaitlyn nodded somberly. "I know," she said quietly.

"Look, even if you're right—and I'm not saying that you are," Dean added before either of them could interrupt. "They're _vampires_. What part of that don't you two understand? Sam, if it's supernatural, we kill it. End of story. That's our job," he said, leaving no room for discussion.

But that didn't stop Sam from replying, "No, Dean, that's not our job! Our job is hunting evil and if these things aren't killing people, then they're not evil!"

"Of course they're killing people; that's what they do! They're all the same, Sam! I'm sorry, Kaitlyn, but those things are not human. I don't care if you claim that there is such a thing as good vampires, because there is no such thing. And we have to exterminate every last one of them."

"Do I have to pin you against the car again?" Kaitlyn demanded angrily. "Dean, these vampires are not hurting anybody. And if you try and hurt them," she added, "then you're going to have to go through me, because I will not let you hurt them. I gave them my word that I would help them and that's what I'm going to do. If they're trying to live their lives as normally as possible, then who are we to hunt them down? I'm not gonna argue against killing things that are killing people, but when they're not hurting anybody? That doesn't make us any better than them."

"Gordon's been on those vamps for over a year now," Dean replied hotly. "Trust me, he know what he's talking about."

"And you're taking his word for it?" Sam countered. "Ellen says that he's bad news, Dean."

His brother stopped. "You called Ellen?" he asked suspiciously. Sam nodded immediately. "And I'm supposed to listen to her? We barely know her, Sam. And we barely know you," he added to Kaitlyn, who glared. "No thanks. I'll go with Gordon."

"Right, because Gordon's such an old friend," Sam shot back. "You wanna know what I think this is?"

"What are you talking about?" Dean retorted.

"He's a substitute for Dad, isn't he? A poor one," Sam added. Kaitlyn winced; maybe she shouldn't have put that idea into his head. But she knew that she wasn't wrong, from the way Dean's face grew dark at the accusation. "He's not even close to Dad, not even on his best day."

"You know what? I'm not even going to talk about this."

"Um, guys . . ." Kaitlyn said as she noticed something behind them that neither Dean nor Sam had seen.

"You know, you can slap this big, fake smile on, but I can see right through it," Sam shot at his brother, not hearing Kaitlyn. "Because I know how you feel, Dean. Dad's dead and he left a hole and it hurts so bad you can't take it. But you can't just fill that hole with whoever you want to. It's an insult to his memory."

"Guys?" Kaitlyn tried again to no avail as Dean punched Sam—hard. Sam went tumbling backwards, but just looked back.

"You can hit me all you want," Sam told him. "But it won't change anything."

"I'm going to that nest," Dean snapped, ignoring him. "You two don't want to tell me where it is, fine. I'll find it myself."

"Guys!" Kaitlyn yelled at the top of her lungs. Both of them jumped and looked around at her. "It might interest you to know that Gordon left."

"WHAT?"

All three of them raced for the motel room, but just as Kaitlyn predicted, there was no sign of Gordon.

"He probably was listening to us talking and went after them," Kaitlyn grumbled, annoyed and a little frightened as she turned desperately to Sam, her blue eyes meeting his brown ones. "Sam, we have to stop him, please. I promised Lenore," she whispered, hating the thought of breaking her word.

"I know," he told her, gently laying a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll think of something. We'll stop him."

"Really, Sam?" Dean snapped, looking back at him. "Because I say we lend him a hand."

"Would you just give me the benefit of the doubt?" Sam demanded. "Look, I trust Kaitlyn. She knows what she's talking about and she knows a lot more about vampires than we do." Kaitlyn smiled shakily at him, touched. "They could have killed us tonight, but they didn't. We have to at least chest this out."

"Yeah, whatever," Dean grumbled, shaking his head as he felt his pockets, searching for something. "Where are my keys?"

"Uh . . ." Sam pointed to the table, where the keys had been lying before they left the room to talk to Dean, but now, they were nowhere to be seen. There was no doubt in any of their minds what had happened to them. "He snaked the keys."

Dean made a face. "Great."

* * *

><p>"Okay, so where's this nest at, anyway?" Dean asked as they piled into Kaitlyn's car and she began navigating her way through town, towards where she <em>thought<em> the nest was at, by her admittedly vague directions.

"I'm not exactly sure, we were both blindfolded," Kaitlyn admitted.

"Don't worry, I'm on it," Sam told her with a map in his hand, trailing his finger up the road. "The bridge was four and a half minutes from their farm. They took a left out of the farm, then turned right onto a dirty road, followed that for two minutes slightly up a hill, then took another quick right and we hit the bridge." Kaitlyn stared at him and he grinned, shrugging. "What?"

"I'm impressed," she told him.

"Yeah, he's good," Dean grumbled. "A major pain in the butt, but he's good. I'll tell you one thing, though: if Gordon doesn't give me my keys back and I have to hotwire my car after I just put her back together, I am _not_ going to be happy."

"Dude, you are _way_ too attached to your car," Kaitlyn told him, shaking her head as she followed Sam's directions. Sam snorted, winking at her, and she smiled back, hoping very much that they weren't too late.

When they reached the farmhouse, Kaitlyn slammed on the break, tearing out of the vehicle as fast as humanly possible, bouncing up the stairs with the Winchesters right behind her, bursting into the house.

"Lenore?" she shouted, looking wildly around for the vampire, but stopped dead in her tracks when a horrible scene met her eyes. "Oh, my god."

She stared in horror at Lenore, who was tied to a chair, covered from head to toe in cuts, her face paler than its usual vampiric pale and she looked ill. For one, brief moment, though, her eyes met Kaitlyn's and some kind of understanding passed through them. Lenore understood; she knew that Kaitlyn had nothing to do with this.

Gordon was circling around him, a bloody knife in his hand, sliding it across her chest, causing her to gasp in pain.

"Stop it!" Kaitlyn shouted, gripping the gun in her hand tightly.

"Sam, Dean, Kaitlyn," Gordon said lightly, as though there were nothing gruesome or out of the ordinary happening. "Come on in. I'm just poisoning Lenore here with some Dead Man's Blood. She's going to tell us where all her little friends are, aren't you?" he asked Lenore, who was defiantly silent as he glanced over at them. "Want to help?"

Dean looked uneasy as Kaitlyn clenched her fists together, trying to contain her rage. This wasn't right, she thought wildly. There was nothing right about any of this and she couldn't believe that Gordon had the gall to call himself human. It was people like him who didn't deserve to be called human and vampires like Angel and Lenore who deserved humanity.

"Grab a knife," Gordon offered, his gaze on Dean. "I was just about to start in on the fingers."

"You sick son of—" Kaitlyn began, making her way towards Gordon, not sure what she was going to do. She opted for ripping his arms out of his sockets and beating him with them, but unfortunately, there was that little Slayer code that said she wasn't allowed to kill humans, no matter how evil they were.

Before she could reach Gordon, however, Dean grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, let's all just chill out, huh?"

"I'm completely chill," Gordon replied carelessly. "I think it's your brother and his girl that need to chill."

"Just step away from her," Sam warned him.

Gordon sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I'm wasting my time here. She's never going to talk. Might as well put her out of her misery," he said as he pulled out another knife, this one much bigger than the one he was holding. "I just sharpened it, so it'll be completely humane."

"Gordon, we're letting her go," Sam warned him, blocking him as he turned towards Lenore, but Gordon pointed the knife at Sam's chest.

"Get away from him," Kaitlyn threatened. "Or I promise you, I will throw out that little rule I've got that says I don't hurt humans."

"Gordon, come on," Dean said, looking nervous with the very large knife pointed at his brother. "Let's just talk about this."

"What's there to talk about? It's like I said, Dean. No shades of grey."

"Yeah, I hear you," Dean agreed, "and I know how you feel. That vampire that killed your sister deserved to die, but this one—"

He stopped as Gordon started laughing, surprising Kaitlyn. "Killed my sister? That filthy fang didn't kill my sister. It turned her," he revealed. "It made her into one of them. So I hunted her down and I killed her myself."

Kaitlyn felt like she was going to be sick; his own sister? How could someone do something like that to his own flesh and blood? Buffy wasn't her blood, but she was still her sister and if she ever was turned into a vampire, Kaitlyn wasn't sure that she had the strength to kill her. Besides, Buffy wouldn't become a monster; no matter what happened to her, she didn't have it in her.

"You did what?" Dean breathed incredulously as Kaitlyn kept her gun on Gordon, ready to fire the second that Sam was in harm's way.

"It wasn't my sister anymore; it wasn't human. I didn't blink," Gordon explained. "And neither would you.

"So you knew all along," Sam realized. "You knew about the vampires, you knew they weren't killing anyone. You knew about the cattle. You just didn't care."

"Care about what?" Gordon returned. "That a nest of vampires suddenly acted nice? Taking a little time out from sucking innocent people. And we're just supposed to buy that? Trust me, it doesn't change what they are and I can prove it," he added, grabbing hold of Sam, slicing his arm and dragging him towards Lenore, the knife on Sam's throat.

"Let him go!" Dean shouted, his own weapon on Gordon now. "Now!"

"Relax," Gordon said confidentially. "If I wanted to kill him, he'd already be on the floor. I'm just making a little point."

The blood from Sam's wound dripped down onto Lenore's mouth. She hissed, her face shifting into her vampiric one.

"Lenore . . ." Kaitlyn whispered. "Don't. Angel," she whispered. "Remember Angel? He wouldn't want you to do this. You can fight this. This isn't you anymore."

"You really think that, Sawyer?" Gordon demanded. "You think she's so different? You still want to save her? Look at her. They're all the same. Evil, bloodthirsty—"

"No!" Lenore cried out, turning her face away from the blood, her fangs retracting. "No! No," she said with as much energy as she could muster.

"You hear her, Gordon?" Sam asked, pushing the older hunter away from him. "We're done here."

Dean nodded in agreement, obviously on board with them now. "Sam, Kaitlyn, get her out of here."

"You gonna be okay with him?" Sam asked his brother as he picked Lenore up bridal style and he and Kaitlyn began backing out of the room.

"Don't worry about me," Dean promised. "Gordon and I have some things to talk about."

"All right," Kaitlyn said uncertainly, "but be careful." She backed up, covering Sam and Lenore as they made their way out of the house and into Kaitlyn's car. Lenore was weak and could barely lift her head as Kaitlyn got into the driver's seat, driving away from the farmhouse, but she was still able to give her directions to where they could find the nest.

"Would you really have shot him?"

She looked over at Sam, shielding Lenore from the sun, but his brown eyes were on Kaitlyn questioningly.

"I was thinking about it," Kaitlyn acknowledged. "I wouldn't have killed him, though. Definitely would have hurt him," she said thoughtfully. "But unfortunately, I've got this thing about killing humans. They won't die by my hand, Sam, no matter what they've done. I'll hand-deliver them to jail, but I won't kill them."

"It's not such a bad rule to live by," Sam pointed out.

Shaking her head, Kaitlyn said softly, "No, it's not. I just hope that he doesn't come after us one day. Because you know Gordon's not going to be happy that we screwed up with his diabolical plan."

"Nope," Sam agreed with a slight chuckle. "You did good back there. And thank you, for trying to save my life."

Kaitlyn looked back at him. "Different positions, you would have done the same thing for me," she replied. "But you're welcome. Looks like we're coming up on the nest," she added, spotting Eli and a few other vampires up ahead, where they were waiting for Lenore.

It hadn't been easy to explain that they weren't the ones responsible for Lenore's predicament, but Lenore managed to smooth things over, weak as she was.

But there was one little problem; Gordon had destroyed Lenore's car so she couldn't make an escape, so they didn't have enough room in the vehicles they had to get the entire nest away. So, with great reluctance, Kaitlyn handed over the keys to her own car.

"You don't have to do this," Lenore told her as she pulled her things out of the trunk.

"I know that," she replied with a smile at her. "But you need it more than I do right now. Don't worry, I can figure something out."

Lenore smiled at her before tugging her away from the others. "I know what you are," she said quietly. Kaitlyn froze. "There were rumors that Angel was involved with a Vampire Slayer. I can put two and two together."

"No, that's wasn't me," Kaitlyn muttered. "That was Buffy, my . . . my sister Slayer. There's two of us," she explained to Lenore's surprised expression. "It's a very long, very complicated story, but Angel has never been anything more than a brother to me. Nothing romantic, ever," she said dryly.

"I see . . . but you are a Slayer, aren't you?"

Kaitlyn bowed her head and nodded. "Yeah, I am," she admitted.

Glancing towards where Sam was standing, talking with the vampires, Lenore asked, "Do they know?"

"No," Kaitlyn admitted. "It doesn't matter, anyway, we were just working on this case together. He and his brother will go their way and I'll go mine. I'll probably never even see them again."

"Maybe . . . and maybe not," Lenore told her. "But Katherine, you shouldn't run from who you are. You'll only hurt yourself in the long run."

"Yeah, I know, but I . . ." Kaitlyn trailed off as she registered what Lenore had called her, staring at her in suspicion. "Wait a minute, how do you know that name?" she demanded. "I haven't gone by the name of Katherine in a long time, over fourteen years."

"Yes, but I also knew Gwyneth Seymour," Lenore told her. "And I know of her daughter who inherited her powers, her legacy. You're very much like your mother, Katherine. And your father," she added mysteriously. "You carry the best of both of them inside you. Don't lose that," she advised as she moved back to her family.

"Wait, my father?" Kaitlyn said, hurrying to catch up with her. "You knew my father? Do you know where he is? Do you know where I can find him?"

"You won't," Lenore replied. "You won't find your father, Katherine. He'll find you when it is essential."

It was only after Lenore and her family disappeared that Kaitlyn wondered, essential from whom?

* * *

><p>They swung by the hotel to grab the Impala—Sam had snagged the keys from Gordon while he was holding him captive—and drove it back to the farmhouse. By the time they got back there, Gordon was tied up in a chair, looking worse for the wear, and Dean didn't look much better. Kaitlyn exchanged a look with Sam before looking back at the two hunters.<p>

"So did we miss anything?" Sam asked conversationally.

"Nah, not much," Dean replied. "Did Lenore get out okay?"

"Yeah," Kaitlyn said, giving a cold look to Gordon, who barely gave her a passing glance. "All of them did."

Dean nodded. "Then I guess our works here is done," he said, returning his attention to Gordon. "How you doing, Gordy? You gotta tinkle yet?" he said with a smart-aleck grin. "All right, well, get comfy. We'll call someone in two or three days, have them come out and untie you. Well, I guess this is goodbye. It's been real," he said, punching Gordon and knocking him to the ground. Kaitlyn snorted; it wasn't really funny, but it wasn't like the guy didn't deserve it. "Okay, I'm good now. We can go."

"You look terrible, Dean," Kaitlyn commented as they walked to the Impala.

"Shut up," he grumbled. "Hey, Sam, clock me one, would you?"

"What?" Sam asked, incredulous.

"Come on," Dean begged him. "I won't even hit you back, let's go. You can get a freebie. Hit me, come on."

"Dean, you look like you just went twelve rounds with a block of cement. I'll take a rain check," Sam told him.

Making a face, Dean muttered, "I wish we never took this job. It just . . . jacked everything up. All those hunts we went on, Sammy, our whole lives, what if we killed things that didn't deserve killing, you know? I mean, the way Dad raised us . . ."

His expression softening, Sam said softly, "Dean, after what happened to Mom, Dad did the best he could."

"I know he did, but the man wasn't perfect. And the way he raised us to hate those things. And man, I do hate them. When I killed that vampire at the mill, I didn't even think about it. I even enjoyed it."

"But you didn't kill Lenore," Kaitlyn offered. "That's got to be something. You could have killed her, but you didn't."

"Maybe not, but every instinct wanted me to," Dean replied. "I was going to kill her. I was gonna kill them all."

"Yeah, but Dean, you didn't," Sam pointed out. "And that's what matters."

"Yeah, well, because you're a pain in the butt," Dean grumbled.

"Guess I might have to stick around and continue to be a pain in the butt, then," Sam replied.

"Thanks. . . . How'd you get the keys, anyway? And where's your car?" Dean added to Kaitlyn, looking around.

"I gave it to Lenore," Kaitlyn admitted. "Gordon kind of destroyed hers, so I gave her mine."

"Speaking of which," Sam added, looking at her, "where are you going to get another car?"

"I don't know," Kaitlyn said, shrugging. "Maybe I can win one from one of the hunters at the Roadhouse. Those guys really don't know how to play poker," she said with an evil grin.

Sam laughed and Dean just shook his head. "Great . . . we're gonna take her with us, aren't we?" he complained.

"No, that's not—" Kaitlyn protested.

"Yes, it is," Sam interrupted her. "We're not about to leave you out here by yourself, especially with the possibility that Gordon might come after all of us. Strength in numbers," he suggested.

Kaitlyn hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"Come on, Princess," Dean said in annoyance. "Get your bags in the car and let's hit the road."

And with one last glance at Sam, her heart fluttering as blue eyes met brown, she climbed into the back seat of the Impala, unknowingly taking the first steps towards her fate.


	5. CSPWDT I

**Shadows of Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Five: Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things I

"Come on, Sam!" Dean complained as he sped along the highway, the windows rolled down, letting in the bright sunlight. "This is stupid!"

"I think it's kind of nice, actually," Kaitlyn offered from where she was lying stretched out in the back seat. Sam threw her a grateful look and she smiled at him, flipping through the magazine she had laid out on her lap. "If I actually knew where my mom was buried, I would probably go visit hers. But I'm not even sure if she actually has a headstone anywhere."

"We could look into it, if you want," Sam offered. "I'm sure somebody knows what happened to her body."

Kaitlyn shook her head. "That's sweet of you, but if there was anything, my—my mentor would have told me about it," she finished lamely, almost slipping and saying her Watcher, which would have been a dead giveaway of her Slayer status.

She liked Sam and Dean very much; they were growing on her, but she was still wary of letting them know of that particular fact. There'd simply been too many run-ins with hunters for her to just spill that knowledge to them. Maybe, once she'd gotten to know them a little better and them her, she would tell them.

Maybe . . . just not yet.

"Well, I, for one, thing that it's stupid," Dean declared. "Mom doesn't even have a grave; there was no body left after the fire."

"She has a headstone," Sam reminded his brother as Kaitlyn rolled her eyes at the elder Winchester, but he simply ignored her. Ever since Sam had suggested going to see their mother's grave two days ago, Dean had been putting up the argument, but so far, he was losing miserably.

"Yeah, put up by her uncle, a man we have never even met. So you want to go pay your respects to a slab of granite put up by a stranger?" he wanted to know.

"Dean, that's not the point," Sam retorted.

"Well then, enlighten me, Sam," Dean replied.

"It's not about a body or—or a casket. It's about her memory, okay?" Sam told him. "And after Dad, it just . . . it feels like the right thing to do."

Kaitlyn kept her gaze on her magazine, feeling that this was more private family business than hers. Sam had told her what had happened to their mother Mary; she'd allegedly died in a fire, but their father John had seen something kill her that night and since then, he became obsessed with hunting down the thing that killed her, leading him into the world of demons and dragging his sons along for the ride. But a few weeks ago, there had been a big showdown involving the demon that killed her—which Sam had dubbed Yellow-Eyes—and Dean had been severely injured to the point of death. Somehow, he had survived, but John died several minutes afterwards, which seemed a little fishy to Kaitlyn. Somehow, she thought that the reason Dean survived had more to do with John's death than anything else, but she kept that to herself.

Besides, smart as Sam was, he probably was thinking along the same lines.

"Why don't we swing by the Roadhouse instead?" Dean suggested, still trying to get out of the trip back to Lawrence, Kansas. "I mean, we haven't heard anything about the demon lately; we should be hunting him down instead."

Sam nodded immediately. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea," he agreed. "You should go. Just drop me off," he suggested, "I can hitch a ride and meet you there tomorrow." But Dean didn't like this suggestion, if the look on his face was anything to judge by.

"Right," he grumbled. "Stuck with those people, making awkward small talk until you show up? No thanks."

"Kaitlyn will be there," Sam suggested.

"Nope," Kaitlyn replied dryly, "actually, I'd prefer to sit off to the side and watch your brother make a complete fool of himself." Sam laughed. "So the first stop we need to make is to buy a camera so we enjoy it for years to come. It's bound to be priceless," she joked.

"You're hilarious," Dean grumbled just as Kaitlyn's cell rang, playing the ring tone that Willow had made for her months ago. She winced as "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" started playing. Both brothers turned around to look at her, eyebrows raised.

"I've got to change that ring tone," she mumbled. Dean snorted and Sam shook his head as she flipped open her phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, sis," Buffy greeted her.

"Buffy, hey," she said, straightening. It had been awhile since she had talked with her sister. "What's going on?"

"Nothing much, I just wanted to check in," Buffy replied. "I just want to make sure that you're doing okay and that you haven't gotten yourself killed out there."

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. "Buffy, give me a break. I'm eighteen years old; I am capable of taking care of myself."

"Yeah, sure," Buffy replied, laughing.

"I am!" Kaitlyn insisted, which only made Buffy laugh even harder. "Hey, who was it that saved your butt when you got caught at Kendra's murder scene? Or when Angel was being targeted by the First? Or how about your last birthday?" she reminded her. She could practically see her sister pouting. "Or how about—"

"Okay, okay!" Buffy exclaimed. "So we've both saved each other's hides on multiple occasions. You're feisty today," she commented.

"Well, maybe I just feel good today," Kaitlyn commented. "So I'm just gonna go with it. Walk on sunshine and all that," she added. "So is there any particular reason that you called or was it just to check up on me?"

"Mostly just to check up on you," Buffy admitted. "And I also wanted to talk to you about this guy I was seeing."

"You were seeing somebody?" Kaitlyn said, shaking her head. "Buffy, you just broke up with Angel, the love of your life, your _soul mate_—do you really think right now is the best time to be dating somebody? I mean, it's not going to lead to anything good," she told her patiently.

"Tell me something I don't know," Buffy said quietly. It was only then that Kaitlyn noted the unhappiness in her sister's voice.

"Hey, what's wrong?" she asked softly. "Did this guy hurt you or something?"

"Something like that," Buffy said quietly. "He basically just used me for sex and then dumped me."

"Oh, my—that . . . that . . . jerk," Kaitlyn said, unable to come up with a bad enough word to describe him. "This is that Parker guy that Oz mentioned, right?"

"You talk to Oz?"

"He's the only who talks to me," Kaitlyn admitted.

"Right . . . yeah, that would be Parker," Buffy agreed, sounding very depressed. "I just . . . I really thought that he liked me. But then again, it's just a normal relationship in Buffy-land. Why is it that I always pick the bad boys?" she wanted to know. "Why can't I just pick one good one?"

"Buffy, you picked a great one," Kaitlyn told her. "You and Angel's relationship, that was something that I would have killed to have. It's the only thing that I've ever been jealous of you for. I didn't want Angel, per say, but I did want the relationship that you had with him. Sure, he was over two hundred years old, but he was a great guy. And if you two weren't so stubborn, then—"

"He was the one who left me, Kait, not the other way around," Buffy reminded her bitterly.

"Yeah, and I tell him that that was a stupid decision every time I talk to him," Kaitlyn told her. "Look, Buffy, I don't know what to tell you, because as you well know, I've only had one boyfriend before and we both know how that turned out. But I honestly believe that you and Angel are soul mates, which means that you're meant to be together. Unfortunately, that also means that any guy that you're with is going to be second best. Sorry."

"It's okay," Buffy sighed. "I know he and I are soul mates. You don't go through everything we went through and end up loving each other even more than you did before without being soul mates."

"Yeah . . ."

"So what are you up to, anyway? Where are you?" she added.

"Uh . . . on my way to Lawrence, Kansas," she replied.

"Kansas? What on earth are you hunting there?"

"We're not hunting anything," Kaitlyn told her impatiently. "At least—not that I know about. Actually, my friend just wanted to go visit his mom's grave . . ."

"Your friend?"

"Yeah, I'm traveling around with some friends," Kaitlyn told her. "I'm allowed to do that."

"Are these guy friends or girl friends?" Buffy inquired and Kaitlyn could hear the smirk in her sister's voice.

"They're guy friends," she replied, glaring at both of them as they both were laughing up front. "Actually, I might just kill them both in a few minutes if they don't stop laughing this second."

_That_ shut them up.

"And what are their names?"

"Their names are Sam and Dean Winchester," Kaitlyn told her. "Would you like to speak to one of them and give them the third degree?"

"Yeah, that'd be great, actually."

"I wasn't serious," Kaitlyn muttered.

"Too late," Buffy replied. "Put one of them on the phone."

Kaitlyn sighed, pulling the phone away from her ear. "So who wants to talk to my sister?" she said sheepishly.

"Depends," Dean said, "is she hot?"

She glared at him as Sam swatted his brother before reaching for the phone and taking it. "Hey, this is Sam," he said.

It was impossible to tell what Buffy was saying, but Sam didn't look at all like he was bothered, just nodded and answering a few things before he gave the phone back.

"He seems pretty nice," Buffy commented.

"Yeah, he is."

"Oh, great," Buffy complained. "I think we've got trouble on the hellmouth."

"Yeah, so what else is new?" Kaitlyn told her. "I'll let you go. Don't worry, I'll call you in a couple days. I love you, sis," she added.

"Love you too," Buffy said. "Oh . . . and Kait?"

"Yeah?"

"That was Dean who made the 'is she hot' comment, right?"

"Of course."

"Give him a slap upside the head for me," Buffy told her before she hung up.

* * *

><p>Kaitlyn waited patiently on the hood of the car as Sam knelt down next to his mother's grave, letting him have his privacy. She certainly wasn't going to intrude on something as private as this, but she couldn't tear her gaze away from him as he dug into the dirt with a knife, pulling something out from his pocket and burying it with his mother, but from this distance, she couldn't see what it was.<p>

As he stood up and turned his brown eyes to her sky-blue ones, Kaitlyn felt her cheeks flame with embarrassment as she ducked her head, letting her dark hair fall forward into her face, pulling her jacket tighter around her as she clamored off the hood of the car, turning away from Sam, but it didn't help. She could still feel those brown eyes of his pouring into her back.

While Sam was at his mother's grave, Dean had been poking around the cemetery before going off to talk to the groundskeeper, making some inquiries, but it wasn't until he made his way back to them that Kaitlyn noticed the grave that he had been standing near—not Mary Winchester's, but somebody else's; Dean hadn't been able to go within fifty yards of his mother's grave—where everything around the grave had gone dead, in a perfect circle. Kaitlyn frowned slightly at the oddity, folding her arms across her chest as Dean came back over to her and Sam, who had returned to the car.

"Angela Mason," Dean reported, jerking his head back to the gravesite. "She was a student at the local college, funeral was three days ago."

"And?" Sam pressed.

Dean gave him a look. "And you saw her grave; everything dead around it, in a perfect circle? You don't think that's a little weird?"

"Maybe the groundskeeper went a little agro with the pesticide," Sam suggested.

"Doubtful," Kaitlyn observed. "Even if he did go a little overboard, it wouldn't be in a circle like that. It would be . . . well, it wouldn't be in a circle like that," she said as Dean looked at her.

Sam hesitated. "So what do you guys think?"

"I don't know," Dean replied as he made his way to the driver's side of the Impale. "Unholy ground, maybe? If something evil happened there, it could easily poison the ground. Remember the farm outside of Cedar Rapids?" he asked. "Or it could be a sign of a demonic presence. Or the Angela girl's spirit, if it's powerful enough." Sam just nodded, not looking convinced. "Well, don't get too excited, you might pull something."

"It's just . . . stumbling on to a hunt? Here of all places?" Sam asked. "Are you sure this is about a hunt and not about something else?"

"What else would it be about?"

"Okay, guys," Kaitlyn interrupted before a fight could ensue. "Why don't we just go check out this Angela and see if we find anything? Nothing wrong with just checking it out," she said pointedly to Sam, who sighed, nodding once as they all climbed into the Impala. "So what do we know about her?"

"Well, her dad works in town," Dean reported as he navigated his way out of the cemetery. "He's a professor at the school."

"Great," Kaitlyn said. "We'll start there."

* * *

><p>"Hello, Dr. Mason?" Sam said as the door opened, revealing a grief-stricken man behind it. "I'm Sam, this is Dean and Kaitlyn. We were friends of Angela's . . . we just wanted to offer our condolences."<p>

Nodding once, Dr. Mason pulled the door open further, allowing them admittance into his office. "Please, come in," he said, leading them inside. On a nearby table, there was a photo album with pictures of a young girl with thick, dark hair.

"She was beautiful," Sam said, following Kaitlyn's eyes and looking at the pictures of Angela Mason. Her father nodded.

"Yes, she was," he agreed.

"This is an unusual book," Dean commented from the cover, where he was looting through the shelves. He was holding a book with Greek letters on the front, along with a triangular symbol. Kaitlyn frowned slightly at the book; she'd seen something like that somewhere before. Where could she have seen it at?

"It's Ancient Greek," Dr. Mason told him. "I teach a course."

"So a car accident," Kaitlyn prompted, giving Dean a look. "That's horrible."

"Angie was only a mile away when . . ."

"It's got to be hard," Dean said, looking at him very hard, "losing someone like that. Sometimes it's like their still around, almost like you can still sense their presence." He ignored the looks that Kaitlyn and Sam were giving him. "You ever feel anything like that?"

Dr. Mason nodded. "I do, as a matter of fact."

"That's perfectly normal, Dr. Mason," Sam said, glaring at his brother. "Especially with what you're going through."

"No parent should ever have to bury a child," Kaitlyn said gently. Dr. Mason looked up at her, giving her a small nod.

"It's the worst thing any parent can go through," he whispered. "You know, I still phone her. And the phone's ringing before I remember that . . . family's everything, you know? Angie was the most important thing in my life and now . . . I'm just lost without her." He bowed his head and Kaitlyn strongly suspected that he was crying.

"I'm so sorry," Kaitlyn said softly as she stood up. Whatever was going on here—if there was something going on—she didn't think it had anything to do with Dr. Mason. "Let us know if there's anything that we can do for you, Dr. Mason. Come on, guys," she said to the boys, "we should go."

Sam nodded in agreement as he stood up. "We're very sorry for your loss, Dr. Mason," he said, all but dragging Dean out as they headed out the door.

* * *

><p>Loaded down with take-out bags, Kaitlyn rummaged through her pocket to find her card key, only to have the door flung open by Dean.<p>

"Thanks," she said brightly, but her smile faltered when she noticed the dark look on the elder Winchester's face. "What's wrong? Where you going?"

"For a drink," he snapped at her. Kaitlyn stared after him, then looked towards the room beyond as she eased into the room, kicking the door shut behind her. Sam, who was sitting on one of the beds, looked around at her as she entered, grinning at how much stuff she was carrying.

"Jeez, are you planning to feed an army?" he joked with a laugh, jumping up to grab some of the bags, setting them on the table next to the window.

"Uh . . . Sam, I've been around you guys for a week or so. I've seen the way that you guys eat." Sam just looked at her, still grinning. "Okay, so maybe the only other guys I've been around are teenage boys and they seem to eat anything that will come near them."

"That's not true," Sam said, but he was laughing.

"Oh, really?" Kaitlyn asked, raising her eyebrows. "One time, I bought some body lotion and my friend Xander ate it—on chips, by the way."

Sam wrinkled his nose. "That's nasty," he muttered, shaking his head.

"Well, at least someone with the Y chromosome thinks so," Kaitlyn said, shrugging, "because Oz never said anything when Xander did it. Of course, he never actually says anything, so . . ."

"You've got some wacky friends back home," Sam said, chuckling as they sat down at the table, rummaging through the bags. "Where's home for you, anyway?"

"Sunnydale, California," Kaitlyn replied, pulling out the salad that she'd gotten for herself. "All my friends and my sister are going to the university there."

"Why aren't you?" Sam inquired.

Kaitlyn sighed. "Complications," she admitted. "I had a scholarship all lined up and I was supposed to go, but then . . . I got possessed," she explained. Sam's eyes rounded. "And everything got screwed up. I hurt my friends, my sister, my boyfriend . . . everything just went wrong. By the time that they got the demon out of me, I was involved in a homicide and . . . well, by the time the charges were cleared, the school had given my scholarship to another girl. And I didn't have the money to go to college without one, so . . . I decided to hit the road. And here I am," she added, shrugging.

"I'm sorry," Sam said, looking sympathetic. "That sucks." He paused. "So you've got a boyfriend?"

"Not anymore," Kaitlyn told him, shaking her head. "He pretty much blamed me for the stuff that happened while I was possessed and took off. And I don't really blame him, you know?" she added with a sigh. "I did some pretty bad stuff."

"Yeah, but it wasn't you," Sam pointed out. "It was the demon."

Kaitlyn nodded. "Yeah, I know. I've come to terms with it, Sam. I'm not gonna say that there's still some times when it haunts me, but I'm not gonna let it get to me." She glanced towards the door. "So what were you and Dean arguing about anyway?"

"Oh, just . . . I'm not so sure there's really a case here," Sam said awkwardly, looking away. "And I kind of accused Dean of . . . kind of creating one so he wouldn't have to deal with not being able to go within a hundred feet of Mom's grave."

"That's a little harsh," Kaitlyn murmured.

"I just think he doesn't want to deal with Mom—or Dad's death, for that matter," Sam sighed, leaning his head back.

"Or maybe he actually knows what he's doing," Kaitlyn suggested. "Sam, I don't know if there's a case here or not, but the point is your brother thinks that there is, so . . . there's no harm in going along with it for now."

"Maybe," Sam muttered. "You wanna watch some TV?"

"Sure," Kaitlyn shrugged. "No chick flicks."

Sam laughed at her. "No chick flicks," he agreed.

AN: Okay, guys, I'm a little upset about the lack of reviews on the last chapter. I'm not picky about what people write, but I would like some feedback. I'm not asking for much, just a couple little reviews to let me know that people are actually reading this. So if you guys could please, please, _please_ review this chapter and the last one, I'll be eternally grateful. Thank you so much!

Lady Dawson


End file.
